Supernova in Galaxy M101

Hi all, this has just been announced, the latest is it is rapidly rising in visual magnitude at ab out magnitude 14 orso and will probably get brighter

From SPA:

SUPERNOVA IN M101
By Robin Scagell

British astronomers have announced the discovery of a supernova in
galaxy M101, which they claim is the nearest supernova of its type for
more than 40 years. The object was discovered at magnitude 17, but
it appears to be rising in brightness, and the team says that it could
become as bright as magnitude 10 within the next few days. That
would bring it well within the reach of small telescopes and even
large binoculars. Amateur astronomers with suitable instruments
should already be able to photograph the supernova, which has the
name PTF11kly. Its position is RA 14:03:05.81, Dec +54:16:25.4.
M101 is currently well placed for observation; it is in Ursa Major,
not far from the well-known stars Mizar and Alkaid/Benetnasch in the
Plough.

The supernova was first seen on August 24 at around 8 pm BST,
within the spiral arms of M101. An image taken the previous night
had shown no such object in that position. The discovery was made
from Palomar with the 48-inch Schmidt telescope, which is now operated
robotically by a team of British and American astronomers known as
the Palomar Transient Factory. The object's spectrum shows that it
appears to be a Type 1a supernova, which occurs when a white-dwarf
star in a binary system explodes.



Bulletin compiled by Clive Down

(c) 2011 the Society for Popular Astronomy

I think this is one to the first images of the 1A Supernova, [I hope the like works]

www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/6079812340/

Possible to see with 12 inch dob dya reckon?

Nice shot there! And if it continues to brighten, then no problem with a 12"

Keith.

cool, one to hunt down for sure.